 |
|
|
| Working together
|
|---|
| School District, Parks and Recreation District are working together for what’s best for Prineville
|
|---|
 | | CENTRAL OREGONIAN | | Steve Swisher |
|
A couple of weeks ago an editorial in the Central Oregonian indicated there was a conflict between the Parks and Recreation District and the school district.
On the surface it seemed to indicate that we were fighting over Davidson Field as a location that each wanted to build facilities. Actually there is not conflict between the districts; quite the opposite is true. We are working very closely together now, as in the past, and anticipate that the level of cooperation will remain strong and positive for the future.
The school board has established a long-range facility committee and has appointed more that 20 members from the community and representatives from our partner agencies. (Check our Web site: www.crookcounty.k12.or.us for more information.) Their work began in May and is expected to take the next year to fully research alternatives and options before making recommendations to the school board regarding our current buildings and the need for upgrades and new facilities. We have formed subcommittees and have heard from one of our "guest expert" groups to date.
This first group was the Real Estate Council which was funded by the Innovation Partnership Foundation. They came to Crook County to review our schools and properties and study the trends. This is a highly experienced group of professionals in the fields of real estate, development, planning, and finance community. They are from Oregon, but all have national level experience. This same group did a review for the Portland Public Schools and produced a study document for their board that has been extremely helpful to them. They are producing the same type of written report for us (although I suspect it will be a few less pages). One positive aspect of this quality consulting group is that it did not cost the school district or community anything other than a bit of time to answer their interview questions. We were selected as the first pilot site outside of Portland for this service and it was completely funded by the Innovation Partnership Foundation, an organization dedicated to assisting communities develop in positive ways.
One of the comments in their preliminary report was that the district should develop a basic design for future school buildings regarding size, grade level configurations, and needs for specific curriculum components. Another comment they made was that we should consider immediately replacing Ochoco School, possibly replacing it on the site of Davidson Park. Of course there are a couple of problems with that. Ochoco School currently sits on 6.03 acres and Davidson Park is only 4.2 acres. There were comments about a two story structure that would save space, but even with that, you probably know the difficulties we currently have with parking spaces and traffic flow at Ochoco School during a school event. Interestingly enough, we have more parking spaces at Ochoco School than we have at Crooked River or Cecil Sly Elementary Schools. Cramming Ochoco School onto a 4.2 acre space would not be easy.
The second and bigger issue is that there is already a plan for an aquatic center at Davidson Park developed by the Parks and Recreation District with City cooperation. The Parks and Recreation District is planning a bond election this coming November to allow the replacement of the old pool in town that was built in 1954. The old pool has numerous maintenance and other issues. I believe we need an aquatic center in town that can be used year-round for the entire community. I would welcome the opportunity to work with the Parks and Recreation District to develop a swim curriculum for all students and develop a high school swim team.
In the meantime our school facilities committee work will continue well past the Parks and Recreation District election. We will have a basic design recommendation in place. With the help of broad-based community input gathered from community members, a citizen committee recommendation will be made to the school board as to what should be done with our current schools and what we should include in our long-range plan for future schools. The Real Estate Council gave us many good ideas to think about as part of the process and we welcome their information as one input source. The citizens committee is working together with the city, county, and our many other community partners on the school district's facility plan. We are growing faster than most of us can imagine and coordination and collaboration is the only way for efficient and effective services to develop in a planned and positive way to meet the growth demands of the community and schools.
Steve Swisher is the superintendent of the Crook County School District. He can be reached at: steve.swisher@crookcounty.k12.or.us |
| Go to top. |
|
|
|
